I see wonderful things

These are the authentic sounds of musical instruments used in ancient times. pic.twitter.com/SjXOIssZjX

— James Lucas (@JamesLucasIT) April 22, 2026

 

Offbeat Humor

pic.twitter.com/6JDYtXJL4R

— Graham Linehan (@Glinner) April 22, 2026

 

Data Talks

About 54% of U.S. adults (ages 16-74) — roughly 130 million people — read below a 6th-grade level.

Why does nobody talk about this? pic.twitter.com/Mw6aP39xfM

— Athenaeum Book Club (@athenaeumbc) April 20, 2026

 

Pasadena Morning, 2018 by Kenton Nelson

Pasadena Morning, 2018 by Kenton Nelson (America, 1954 - )

Click to enlarge.

In such communities, the glue is neighbourliness, a thirst to find a middle ground, a place where everyone has something in common.

Via Quote of the Day. From Canada’s Middle Ground by David Lawson, Wine Access, September, 2005. 

Winnipeg is in the geographic centre of Canada and perhaps our cultural centre in terms of defining what is really Canadian — not just because it’s called Winterpeg. Vancouver culturally associates with San Francisco or Seattle, Calgary with Dallas, Toronto with New York, and Montreal with Paris.

But Winnipeg is a place unto itself, a place that reflects the vast space and isolation one feels in countless Canadian communities from the Maritimes to northern Ontario to the interior of B.C.

In such communities, the glue is neighbourliness, a thirst to find a middle ground, a place where everyone has something in common.

Bullying, hazing, shaming, or peer pressure

An interesting post and resulting conversation going on over at InfantryDort about the beneficial attributes of bullying.

Any man who thinks bullying is ubiquitously inappropriate has the survival instincts of a deer gazing longingly at headlights.

For most of human history, communities had weak formal institutions. Public ridicule, shaming, and ostracism were used to enforce norms.

Examples:… https://t.co/njbFS7fCLV

— InfantryDort (@infantrydort) May 29, 2026

There is of course, commentary trying to distinguish and delimit the behavior as whether we are talking about bullying, hazing, shaming, or peer pressure.  

There does seem general acknowledgement that bullying can function as a mechanism for enforcing social norms.  

The thought which occurred to me is that since at least the 1960s, we have slowly been trying to reduce bullying in high school and college, perhaps reaching peak aversion in the Woke Micro-aggressions back in the 2010s early 2020s.   

In the same period we have seen the cult of multiculturalism post-1980s, the failed belief that multiple, and any, cultures can coexist within one governance system.  

Finally, this is the same era, especially post-1990s when we became averse to any measurement or testing on people which might highlight differences in capabilities.  

So in the same period, we were insisting that bullying was wrong, that there were no real differences between people anyway, and pretending there were no social norms that needed to be enforced anyway.

The wreck of those philosophical indulgences is spread on the shore and people, everywhere across the OECD, seem to want to return to their cultures, their social norms, and reasonable means for achieving those social norms.

Is bullying an appropriate societal tool for setting and enforcing social norms?  I think that is what is being discussed here.  

Obviously sadism and injury are out, but there remain many implacable issues.  Social norm policing has to be unpleasant to be effective; non-physically injurious forms of bullying such as ostracism can cause real psychological injuries; how do you ensure that the social norms being enforced are the social norms you want enforced, etc..  

An interesting and wide ranging discussion with many points made in a largely civil fashion.  

History

This Hellenistic mosaic glass bowl looks so modern, yet it was made over 2,000 years ago!

Ancient glassmakers created the tiny flower pattern using a technique now known as ‘millefiori’ (thousand flowers). A timeless design still made by glassmakers today!

British Museum… pic.twitter.com/t0JEGjZArM

— Alison Fisk (@AlisonFisk) April 20, 2026

 

An Insight

The year is 1950. Your doctor lights a cigarette and tells you smoking is fine. He read it in a study. He is telling the truth about having read it. He does not know, or is not saying, that the study was funded by the tobacco industry.

The year is 1958. Your doctor tells you to… pic.twitter.com/CTg7Wec8bQ

— Sama Hoole (@SamaHoole) April 18, 2026

 

I see wonderful things

Barred owl shows the full range of motion.

Owls can rotate their heads up to 270° without harming blood vessels or cutting off circulation.pic.twitter.com/fZnRbSlfB2

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) April 22, 2026

 

Offbeat Humor

Brutal line in Politico pic.twitter.com/Zc4BC19CIi

— James Heale (@JAHeale) April 20, 2026